We had a canteen that sold more ice cream than any other outlet in New Zealand.

When we had Hui Lau (General Conference) it was at the college. We had cleared out the equipment from the joinery (the largest building we had) and people slept in partly finished school buildings and in tents, etc. and doubled up with us and others.

N.Z. is a beautiful place. The north island looks like a golf course 500 miles long. Beautiful green rolling hills, hedge rows, lakes, rivers and some mountains, some natural wonders, geysers, an active volcano, thermal activity, glow worm caves, etc., fishing, hunting, etc. When the white man came there were no animals. There are no snakes, etc. Now there is a nuisance number of rabbits, deer, pigs gone wild, goats gone wild, wild cattle, etc. Some plants were imported that are now noxious. Blackberry, gorse, etc. The native timber was mostly hardwood. There are a few left. Kauri trees, that is the largest tree in the southern hemisphere, 40 feet in circumference, and beautiful, easily handled soft wood. These trees a thousand years old have produced a lot of Kauri gum, about like resin. That is about gone now, but was valuable in making varnish, etc.

It's a sort of socialist form of government that is irksome to an American. Controls on nearly everything. We could not open a gas station without the consent of all the gas stations in a given (30 miles or so) radius. So we did not have one. The people are friendly and accommodating. I talked with several people about it and no one had ever heard of a hitch hiker doing violence to someone who had picked him up. They told me there were more cars per capita in N.Z. than anywhere else except U.S. You could hitch hike from one end of N.Z. to the other in an hour or two longer than you could drive. 

They have strict gun control, so look at this: pistols are forbidden, period, except on special assignment for police. Shotguns, you don't need to register. All rifles, .22 and others, must be registered and no one (which naturally follows) is allowed to have one in his possession unless it is registered to him. Your son can't take your .22 out unless you take it in and register it in his name, then you can't take it out. We had our .22, a .270 rifle, and a 12-gauge shotgun. When I took them in to register them I had quite a visit with the man. I reminded him of the time when they were all scared nearly to death that the Japs were going to invade. They would go straight to the police station and there have the make and number and name and address of every gun in the country and they would all be disarmed. Of course he just worked there, of which I was aware, but it is a danger (real) that we don't need to impose on ourselves. 

New Zealand being small (2 1/2 to 3 million people) country has some disadvantages which we do not have. Also some advantages that we do not have: if there is a shortage of say potatoes, then it is soon evident and the price has to increase enough to import or just go without. While we were there, there 

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